Thursday, September 18, 2014

Accepting Your Body Type

The "thigh gap" and the subsequent "anti-thigh gap" movements have brought to light some important information: one's thigh gap (or lack thereof) is mostly related 3 things: the structure of your pelvis, the width of your hips, and the size of your adductor (inner thigh) muscles. Seeing this in the blogosphere and social media helped me personally come to some realizations of my own regarding body type and realistic goals.

Let me explain: I (Lindsay) am of average height and athletic frame. Ever since the days of middle/high school sports physicals, if you just looked at my weight, you would assume I was overweight, but in reality, I carry a lot of muscle on my frame = density = weight! Fast-forward to adult life and I'm the girl who's BMI says I'm considerably overweight, borderline OBESE, but I'm a size 4-6. That's my body type! That is structurally how I'm built.

Current me. No filters!

So, much like the thigh gap debate - me trying to look like these tiny, petite "fitness" models on Pinterest is setting myself up for a losing battle. I'm built more like a Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet or an Erin Stern. SO - instead of fighting my genetics, I'm rolling with them!

We are all shaped differently (and that's a beautiful thing). And we can all ALWAYS make ourselves better - and we'll be most successful when we work with what we've got!

P.S. - we know some trolls are bound to make comments about comparisons - I find the women I mentioned above to be beautiful role models for health and fitness and I am inspired by them. If you are not, that's fine - troll somewhere else :)